Pet Toilet Training

Toilet training your pet can make sanitation issues all but disappear in your home. Cats are better able to be toilet trained than dogs, who have mixed results depending on age, size and breed. Smaller dogs have a hard time centering themselves on a toilet seat.

  1. Time Frame

    • Toilet training a cat will be a gradual process that can take several days to a few weeks to master. Trying to speed up the training will not amount to better, or faster, results because cats are slow to get used to new things. Toilet training medium-size to larger breeds of dogs has been known to work, but only if you start the training when the dog is a puppy. A border collie is an example of a medium-size dog and an Irish setter, a large breed.

    Technique

    • Move your cat's litter box close to a toilet, preferably in the bathroom you intend to have your cat use. Be sure that your cat knows where you have moved the box and that it is able to find it so no accidents occur during training. Move the box one inch closer to the toilet each day, while taking out the amount of litter each time. For a dog, start out training your puppy to use a pet pad as its indoor toilet, and follow the same steps by moving the pad closer to the toilet each day.

    Getting Your Pet on the Toilet

    • Raise the litter box each day by balancing a book under the box until it is level with the toilet seat. Raise your toilet seat and tape wax paper over the hole. Move the litter box each day until it is on top of the hole. Remove the box and cut a hole in the wax paper. Gradually widen the hole until your cat is toilet trained. Remove the remaining wax paper. Follow the same steps with your puppy and its pet bathroom pad.